You Gotta Believe

by Mike McGranaghan

An unlikely coach is tasked with overseeing a team of misfits and outcasts. He whips them into shape via unusual methods. He also goes out of his way to convince a disinterested phenom to join the team because, doggonit, they really need him. The players eventually take on a rival team consisting entirely of rich snobs. Somehow, the ragtag players pull together when it counts, leading them to the championships, where they have an opportunity to prove their naysayers wrong.

What movie am I describing? It could be Michael Ritchie’s 1976 classic The Bad News Bears. Or the Woody Harrelson basketball comedy Champions. It could also be the Rodney Dangerfield soccer film Ladybugs, the Rick Moranis football kiddie flick Little Giants, Disney’s The Mighty Ducks, or approximately 500 other sports-related pictures. But in this particular case, I’m describing You Gotta Believe, based on the true story of a team from Fort Worth, Texas that improbably made it all the way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

The coach in this case is lawyer Jon Kelly (Greg Kinnear). He’s tasked with leading the local Little League team after his friend Bobby Ratliff (Luke Wilson) develops terminal cancer. When organizer Kliff Young (played by The Sandlot’s Patrick Renna) asks Jon to have the kids serve as the All-Star team because no one else wants to, he demurs, then reluctantly agrees. After unexpectedly winning, they earn the chance to participate in the World Series. Bobby’s son Robert (Michael Cash) rallies the other players, claiming that getting to Williamsport will be the morale booster his dad needs to stay alive.

You Gotta Believe goes two very different directions at the same time. Half of it is a goofy baseball comedy where the teenage players trade zingers when they aren’t screwing up on the baseball diamond. The characters are cliches, from the dweeby kid with glasses to the boy who’s too preoccupied with a girl to pay attention. Their antics are only sporadically amusing because we’ve seen this sort of thing before. Director Ty Roberts often uses distracting trick camera movements and editing techniques during scenes on the field, which takes away from any excitement the games might offer.

The other half is a disease drama, as Bobby tries to stay alive long enough to see his team play. Wilson and Kinnear are very good, as are Sarah Gadon and Molly Parker as their respective wives. Their performances keep things interesting, as does a subplot about Robert being in denial about his father’s fate. The movie sticks close to the conventions of disease movies, but the sincerity of the actors maintains your interest.

Those two halves go together like peanut butter and liver. The baseball stuff is 100% cliché, and every note we expect the story to hit is indeed hit right on cue, with no surprises. We know the kids are going to go far in the World Series. Lane Garrison’s screenplay doesn’t bother trying to devise a fresh hurdle to create suspense. The whiplash-inducing back-and-forth between lightweight humor and dour drama is what most does in You Gotta Believe, though. It simply isn't written or directed with enough finesse to juggle two opposing tones.

Side Note: Williamsport and the Little League World Series Complex are about 40 minutes away from where I live. I found a level of amusement in the shots where skyscrapers can be seen in the background. There are no skyscrapers in Williamsport.

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